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Islamic Relief USA’s Goals Centered On Compassion and Social Justice
The following is a guest blog post by Amna Amin, an intern with Islamic Relief USA’s Public Affairs department. Muslims have been in the United States since the 1600s, as many people who identified with the Islamic tradition were among those taken across the ocean via the atrocities of the slave trade in Africa. Of the slaves brought over, approximately 15% were Muslim. Even more had contact with Islam before coming to North America. Consequently, Islamic values became embedded within the earliest culture of the United States. In fact, Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, owned a Qur’an and even wanted to specifically mention Muslims and their religious freedom…
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IRUSA Hosts Iftar with US Department of Agriculture
An opportunity to break bread with government officials in charge of administering food policies remains one of Islamic Relief USA’s longest running annual rituals. On May 9, we were especially pleased to sponsor an iftar with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was the eighth consecutive year that IRUSA sponsored the annual USDA event and the 11th straight year the USDA haled the annual interfaith event. More than 100 people were in attendance, a cross section of faith leaders, representatives of elected officials, farmers, and friends and family of USDA and IRUSA staff. Mike Beatty, acting director of the USDA Office of Partnership and Public Engagement, said he…
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In Solidarity: A Lesson from IRUSA’s Capitol Hill Iftar
Christy Bectel recently attended the Capitol Hill Iftar and shares her refections. Christy is a Public Affairs Intern at Islamic Relief USA. She is originally from Michigan and is a senior at Grand Valley State University majoring in International Relations and minoring in Middle East Studies and German. The mention of certain cities in the U.S. often evokes images of decline, decay, even pity. Particularly in my home state of Michigan, Flint and Detroit are the cities people name and quickly dismiss in their discussions of poverty in the U.S. Though I’m a resident of neither, I feel an inclination to defend these cities, the stories of which are often framed through…
